AR Rahman is one of the leading music composers in the industry today. Speaking at a recent meet and greet event, the prolific music composer revealed that he had met Michael Jackson before he died in 2009. He also revealed that the King of Pop almost sang for Rajinikanth-Aishwarya Rai starrer ‘Enthiran’ but it did not work out.
In a conversation with his fans at a recent meet-and-greet event in Malaysia, AR Rahman recalled how he met Michael Jackson in 2009. The music composer was in the USA when he met someone from Jackson’s team. He wanted to meet Jackson and he sent out an e-mail. Unfortunately, he did not hear from him for a week. After this, Rahman was nominated for the Oscars for ‘Jai Ho’ and that’s when he heard back from the team.
Rahman said, “I asked if I could meet him. An email was sent out but there was no response for a week. Then, I got nominated for the Oscars (for ‘Jai Ho’ from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’). Michael’s team said he wanted to meet me. I said I don’t want to meet him now. I’ll meet him when I’ve won an Oscar.”
Staying true to his words, Rahman met him after winning the Oscar. He continued, “I met him at a home in LA the day after I won it. He was very kind, we spoke about music and world peace. He said, why don’t we do the next ‘We Are The World’, and introduced me to his kids. He even showed me how he dances from the heart.”
Rahman narrated his experience of meeting Jackson to director Shankar. The director wondered if Jackson could work on ‘Enthiran.’ Rahman talked to Jackson and recalled, “Shankar sir asked me if he would sing for the film. I said, ‘Wow, will he sing a Tamil song?’ I asked. He said, ‘Whatever you say, we’ll do together.’ He was sick at that time.” The plan did not work through as the singer died that year.
Directed by Shankar, ‘Enthiran’ was a massive hit with people praising its soundtrack. On the work front, Rahman has projects lined up in multiple languages.
